The Scrapbook
by Gridey
Summary: A collection of drabbles and one-shots, collated for your convenience. Featuring all characters, ratings and genres, some will make you laugh, some will make you weep, and some will make you question what merciful God would give Gridey internet... Rated for safety and future chapters
1. Appearances

**Theme: **Appearances

**Characters: **Mao, Saya

**Warnings: **None

A/N: I have a few of these oneshots that I wrote forever ago lying around on my harddrive. I rediscovered them today and thought, hell, why not? So here is the first one :) Remember to review!

* * *

Mao narrowed her eyes in a show of intense concentration, her fingers steady as she gazed penetratingly into the mirror. "Hah," she breathed, and the tweezers she held delicately plucked the stray hair from her eyebrow. She turned her head to either side, checking her profile, before carefully picking up a soft-bristled brush and applying a thin layer of powder to her features.

Mao took great pride in her good looks. Appearances were important after all, and while she didn't have the awe-inspiring power of Saya or the brains of Julia, she had instead a beautiful-but-unattainable sort of air about her that made her just as alluring as her other female companions. She put down the brush she had been using to apply her foundation and studied her reflection carefully, dabs of water or a second layer of powder concealing any small blemishes on her fair skin. She pulled a hand through her straightened hair and smiled dazzlingly at her image, satisfied at last that she was perfect.

Walking out the door of the bathroom and into the kitchen, Mao hummed to herself as she started to prepare breakfast. Sure she'd been banned from cooking ever since she somehow managed to set her Cornflakes on fire, but hey, she was hungry, and everyone was already off working, so…

The door opened with a soft creak, and turning Mao was startled to see Saya standing there, looking, in a word, like absolute shit. Her eyes were bloodshot and hollow from lack of sleep, her clothes were ragged and stained with blood, and her hair looked like it might be housing small rodents.

Mao gaped. "Saya, what the hell happened to you?!" she spluttered. "You look horrible!"

Saya blushed, turning to grin sheepishly at the horrified human woman. "Do I really look that bad?" she said, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck. "I guess I've been working so hard all week, I haven't had time to make myself look presentable."

Mao's fist smacked into the palm of her opposite hand, her eyes blazing with fire. "I'll not allow one of my friends to sit about looking like that," she declared loyally. "We, Saya, are going to have –" she paused for dramatic affect, her eyes gleaming with mad fervour – "a girl's day out!"

All Saya could think to offer was a weak "Huh?"

"That's right." Mao took charge, poking her friend here and there and studying her condition critically. "We'll get your hair done at the salon, they'll wash it there and we can buy some products for you. We've got to go to the day spa to get rid of the dirt and blood in your pores, you need to _exfoliate, _mere water won't go deep enough to remove all that gunk… While we're there we can get a massage and hot stones and maybe even a steam, and then we'll get back and I'll give you a proper make-over… Oh, this is going to be so much fun!"

True to her word, Mao dragged Saya out the door, and after flagging a taxi, it didn't take long for the twosome to arrive at Mao's favourite spa.

("But Mao," Saya protested, "We're in Vietnam. _Vietnam_. Aren't you, well, Japanese?"

The woman blinked. "So?" she snapped. "Do you know who my father is? As if the minor inconvenience of having to fly in a plane every other weekend would keep me from getting the works at the best.")

"What will the madams be requesting today?" said an elderly man with a pinstripe suit and golden monocle, his upper lip curling slightly when his eyes alighted on the ghoulish looking Saya. Mao snapped her fingers irritably beneath his nose.

"We want the works," she said brusquely. "Pronto, Lionel."

The man now known as Lionel blinked. "Ah. Miss Mao, I didn't see you there. I'll add this to your tab shall I?"

"Please," said Mao, and Lionel disappeared up a gilded staircase after giving Mao shallow bow and Saya a sneer.

The next few minutes were a blur to Saya, although they were admittedly a rather pleasurable blur full of steam and vanishing aches and massages and towels and soft jungle noises and fragrant oils and heated rocks down her spine. It seemed she was only just peeling the cucumber from her eyes when she was being whisked away again, hurtling this time through the elaborate and gold-leafed doors of the hairdresser.

"The usual?" said a bored looking girl behind the marble counter, her glossy lips puckering so that a large pink bubble could escape them. Mao shook her head.

"No," she said. "I need you to do something about _this_, Sophia." A sheepish looking Saya was brought to Sophia's attention when Mao dramatically swept her toward the counter.

Sophia's bubble popped.

"Oh my Lordy," she breathed, taking in Saya's appearance. "Tina! Aung! Kim! An! We have a code blue people, code blue! Hut hut hut! Get moving, move, move! Code blue!"

Poor, bewildered Saya lost herself in the moisturisers and conditioners, the curling irons and styling gels, the crimpers and the blow dryers. Her hair was yanked this way and that, sloshed with liquid and folded tightly in foils, styled to within an inch of its life. Saya blinked at her reflection, but didn't get time to admire it before she was whisked away, this time back to the car so the pair could go the hotel that was Red Shield's temporary home.

Once back at their room, Saya finally had a chance to breathe when Mao began to rummage through her venerable makeup stash.

"Hold still," said Mao quietly, guiding the Chiropteran to sit on the bed while she herself settled on a chair in the space between Saya's knees. Now that they were back inside, with the light of the afternoon sun shining in tapered ribbons through the thin gauze curtains and the thin shadows of the room rippling with the wind, the two women were at ease. Off to the side, the open window let in the sweet scent of blossoms and fresh mown grass from the yard next door. Saya breathed it in, closing her eyes and smiling sweetly at the feel of soft hands massaging anti-shine cream into her face.

"I didn't get the chance to say anything before," said Saya quietly, her eyes still closed as Mao began applying some foundation base, "but thank you for doing this."

Mao's careful brush strokes didn't pause. "What are you talking about," she huffed. "As if I could let you walk around like that."

"A lot of it went over my head," the Chiropteran admitted, opening her eyes when Mao gently held her chin and begun to apply a richer powder to the arch of her cheekbone. "I've never really done anything like this before. Even when I was living as a human I never really did anything… well, _girly_. It was a first for me, and it was… nice."

And then – and Mao had to consciously tighten her fingers about the mascara wand or she would have dropped it and it would have stained her clothes and then she would have been _ruined_ – Saya _smiled_, and she wasn't wearing any gloss, and nor were her eyes popping with mascara and tasteful eye shadow, and she wasn't even wearing any bronzer yet…

But Mao was sure that that smile couldn't be improved with even Photoshop.

The woman coughed into her fist, hoping that the blush riding her cheeks wasn't as fiery as it felt. "That's all," she said gruffly, closing the bottle of mascara with slightly more force than necessary and not saying anything when Saya cast her surprised gaze onto the mess of unused makeup littering the bed. "I- I'll get started on dinner."

"I'll help," said Saya quietly, and Mao, at last, smiled.

* * *

A/N: If you liked this keep an eye out, there's a few more drabbley things gathering dust on my harddrive that I'll be posting soon. Peace out! Gridey xx


	2. Christmas

**Theme:** Christmas

**Characters: **Kai, others

**Warnings: **language

There were very few words that could adequately summarise his feelings about tonight in general, but in a moment of angry petulance he managed to find two that summed it up quite nicely.

"Bloody hell," Kai swore, ignoring Riku's scandalised spluttering. Tonight of all nights, Kai felt that he _deserved _to swear, was _entitled _to rant and rage till the cows came home and then some, and was in fact looking forward to abusing said privilege the moment he had breath to spare.

It was friggin' cold out.

The seat of his jeans was soaked through with mud and snow.

He had a shallow but bloody gash in his arm that was becoming difficult to ignore.

He and the other members of the Red Shield had been fighting Chiropterans for _hours_…

And it just so happened to be December twenty-fifth, ten in the evening.

Merry flippin' Christmas, indeed.

Diving to the side, Kai narrowly avoiding being skewered by a stray Chiropteran limb that had come sailing through the air like a javelin ("Watch where you throw those things!" he yelled at Saya, who shrugged apologetically before once more being drawn into her fight), before glaringly pulling Riku along behind him as he forced his way through the knee-deep snow. His legs quickly becoming numb, the irate boy once again cursed under his breath. "Riku," he grit out from between his clenched teeth. "Feel free to unleash any super-spectacular Chevalier abilities, any time soon!"

"I don't know any," said Riku desolately, absently tugging his brother a little to the side so that he wasn't hurt by a Chiropteran's jagged claws. "You have a gun, don't you?"

"No ammo," Kai grunted. "Maybe if I –"

"Ammo," chirped Riku helpfully, pressing the newly-acquired belt of magazines into his brother's hands almost before Kai had finished talking. Chevalier speed had its advantages. "David had some spare."

"Brilliant." Kai deftly emptied his pistol's spent casings onto the blood-spattered snow with practised efficiency, and after inserting the fresh magazine with a click he cocked the pistol and began to fire. Even with their combined efforts, it took a good while before the Red Shield had successfully disposed of all seven Chiropteran.

"At last," Kai yawned, stretching his arms to the sky and groaning when his joints creaked. His tired but satisfied smirk froze when he heard the distant bleeps of someone's watch, and risked a disbelieving glance at his own wrist-watch to be sure.

It had just struck midnight.

"What the hell?!" Kai spluttered. "Christmas is over already? But we spent the entire day fighting Chiropteran!"

Only Riku looked disappointed, the others just shrugged tiredly before piling into the van. Kai couldn't believe it. While it wasn't an event largely celebrated in Japan, they always used to make a big deal of it back at home because their Dad had believed so strongly in the ideals of the occasion – namely, the sharing of gifts, the bonding of family, the making of a Christmas dinner that all family members had to in some way contribute to – and Kai had been looking forward to feeling that sense of… _family _again, even if they were a long way from home. But they'd spent the whole _bloody_ day fighting _bloody_ Chiropteran!

The moment the van arrived back at head-quarters Kai stormed wordlessly off into the building's bowels. He found the kitchen after a few tries and managed to whip up a half-hearted omelette, but only stared at it for a moment unblinkingly before snorting and covering the thing in plastic-wrap, shoving it into the fridge with slightly more force than necessary.

He went to bed in a sour mood, ignorant of the two people who watched his retreat with understanding in their eyes.

* * *

Kai groggily opened his eyes, only to scream and furiously back-pedal to the edge of the bed at the sight of Haji's upside-down face looming over his own. The Chevalier drew back slightly, his eyes narrowing and his lips curling slightly in distaste. "Saya has requested that I inform you of her, and the other Red Shield's members', regret that they could not be here with you," the pale skinned man recited coolly. "They were called on another mission, but didn't see the need to bring you along with your… 'injury'."

Making sure that his use of inverted commas – and thus his implication that Kai's injury was barely a scratch, hardly noticeable, would have healed by now if he had the superior blood of a Chevalier – was noted, Haji waited patiently until Kai's eyes sparked in rage before abruptly concluding his message. "She says that her apology is waiting for you in the kitchen."

His assignment evidently complete, Haji strode out the bedroom door.

Shaking his head at the weirdness of it all, Kai winced as he remembered just why he was so upset today. Christmas. Right.

Trudging into the kitchen and feeling distantly grateful that he'd saved the omelette he'd made last night (he was _not _in the mood to cook right now) Kai had to do a double-take when he passed the kitchen table, openly gaping at what was there.

The kitchen table was piled with food. Where everyone typically sat there was a dish they had made – at Saya's seat there was a green salad tossed through with tomatoes and cheese, at Riku's a bowl of boiled eggs, at Julia's some sort of cheese and pasta dish, at David's a stack of hamburgers with filling spilling from the sides, at Lewis's a rich stew, at Akihiro's a tray of large mugs brimming with steaming coffee, and at Mao's (here he had to stifle a snigger) a couple of slices of burnt and lumpily buttered toast. Where he himself sat perched his omelette from the night before.

"Surprise," a quiet voice said from behind him, and whirling around Kai was shocked to see Saya standing there, a soft smirk adorning her pretty features. "Merry belated Christmas."

"Wha– I thought you were out fighting," said Kai dumbly. Saya just giggled, walking up to her brother to fling her arms around his shoulders.

"We were," she said into his neck. "Haji flew me back, though. I wanted to be here when you discovered your surprise, everyone did, but… well, you know how it is."

"I do," said Kai wryly, slowly returning the embrace. "Believe me, I do."

"Well," said Saya brightly as she drew away, clapping her hands together. "Do you want to wait for everyone? Your new family will be disappointed if we eat before they arrive, but they'll understand if you don't want to wait…"

Kai sighed tiredly, then grinned. Aw hell, who was he kidding? It was oddly fitting that he had to wait so long to celebrate… After all, he'd had to wait and work for everything good in his life, why not reflect his sweat and slog in a Christmas celebration? Sharing an understanding smile with his sister, the two got out the plastic wrap and began to cover the food.

"By the way, what's up with Haji?" Kai asked curiously. "He was a little –"

"–cranky?" Saya finished, giggling. "Haji's cooking is worse than Mao's, would you believe. Which is understandable, I suppose, since he doesn't eat at all… Still, the rule is that everyone has to contribute in some way, so we compromised…"

At just that moment Haji walked into the room, adorned in a cutesy frilly apron and wearing a pink rubber glove over his un-bandaged hand. Seeing the pair he gave a shallow bow to Saya and a cool glare to Kai, before stalking into the kitchen and awkwardly collecting all the dirty dishes and placing them in the sink.

Kai laughed so hard he fell over.

Word Count: 1293


	3. An Alternate Universe

**Theme:** An Alternate Universe

**Characters: **Saya, Diva

**Warnings: **Violence, AU

* * *

It was sweet agony, being locked in the tower with her sister.

Biology is not a simple thing to overcome, and Saya and Diva were poisonous to each other. They sat on opposite sides of the room, and slept with one eye open. They didn't need Joel with his beakers and test tubes to tell them that they were a danger to each other.

But there was sweetness too. Being the only two constants in the room that was their world they spoke, sometimes, and though she never said as much Saya liked it when Diva would sing with her sad, lilting voice. They never deluded themselves though. We can only feel what we know, and neither girl had ever been loved.

"Diva," Saya said, croakily. She was slumped in a corner, and when her jaw moved the thick band of blood dried to the side of her face came off in coppery flakes. "I am going to leave here."

Diva laughed. Her chest jerked with her chuckles, and her scars stretched.

"We are poisonous to each other. But we are poisonous to them, too."

Diva didn't say anything – it's not like they were allies – but they were in agreement. There was nothing for them out there, but there was likewise nothing for them in here, and this way they could escape each other. Between the two of them it didn't take long to bite out the throat of the unsuspecting medical attendant, and from there to slaughter their way through the mansion, setting everything ablaze. They didn't know anything and this is what saved them, because that they were a predator was simple biology, and humans were meat and meat was for eating. We can only feel what we know, and neither girl had ever been shown mercy. Joel didn't even have time to scream.

They stared at each other through the flames, naked, bleeding, wary, eyes aglow. They were in a truce, for now, but forever was a long time and there would be other encounters. They would go their own ways, make their own lives, learn from their own experiences and when they came together again only one would walk away.

Some things are just fate.

Word Count: 369


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